This invention relates to hand-held wallpaper steamers for use in stripping wallpaper and other coverings secured to a surface by a heat and/or moisture softenable adhesive.
Such steamers have been proposed before but they have not been entirely satisfactory from the point of view of a home user. In the case of hand-held steamers with an "on-board" water tank, it is sometimes found that, because of the large water capacity of the tank that is needed to allow the steamer to be used for an acceptable period of time, the steamer is very heavy and soon tires the user. If the water capacity of the tank is reduced, the period of use may be unacceptably shortened.
In some steamers, steam is produced by boiling water in the water tank. In such cases, the rate of production of steam is not controlled and this also affects the period of time for which the steamer can be used.
In most cases, water is heated by an electric heater to produce steam and the electrical rating of the heater also affects the period of time for which the steamer can be used. The electrical rating of the heater must also be such that the steamer can be powered from a domestic power supply.
There are, thus, a number of conflicting requirements that have to be reconciled and it is thought that this has not been achieved hitherto in a hand-held steamer because there is no satisfactory steamer on the market.